


Achlys

by JohnAmendAll



Category: Dracula (TV 1968)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 17:08:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10903770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/pseuds/JohnAmendAll
Summary: "You are a doctor, or you call yourself one." Mina's tone was bleak. "Have you never killed before?"





	Achlys

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lost_spook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/gifts).



> From a prompt meme: John/Mina/Lucy, “I’ve never killed anyone before.”

"John!" 

Doctor Seward, who had been hanging back at the entrance of the vault, jumped as the stake and mallet were thrust into his hands. 

"What is it?" he asked. 

Van Helsing was glancing about nervously. "I cannot be sure. I thought— somebody outside— I must see we are not disturbed." He gripped Seward's arm. "You must do it, John. Drive the stake into her heart without delay." 

He dashed from the vault, crucifix in hand. 

Shuddering from head to toe, Seward forced himself to approach Lucy's coffin. She was still in the position he had seen her before, her hands curled into claws, blood smeared on her lips. With shaking hands, Seward lifted the stake and tried to position its tip over her heart. 

"You hesitate," Mina's voice said, behind him. "Why?" 

Seward spun round. Mina was standing in a corner of the vault. In the dim light he could not make out her expression plainly, but there was an air about her of grim determination. 

"I am required to perform a... a terrible duty," he said. 

"You are a doctor, or you call yourself one." Mina's tone was bleak. "Have you never killed before? By accident, by carelessness, or—" She took a step forward. "Or because there was no other way to end the patient's pain?" 

"Mrs Harker!" 

"Answer me, please." 

"No. I have never done what you impute." 

"And yet you would do it to my sweet Lucy." Mina moved closer to him. Briefly, irrelevantly, Seward wondered how she had contrived to enter the vault without being seen by Van Helsing. But before he could finish that train of thought, Mina was speaking once more. 

"You have seen what my husband has become. Would you call his existence a life worth preserving?" Her voice lowered and softened. "If you consider Lucy so changed that it is right to destroy her... why not Jonathan?" She reached out and gently touched his hand. "You would be giving me freedom. Freedom to bestow my affections where they would be most—" 

Her grip suddenly tightened, and she twisted his hand sharply and painfully. The stake fell to the floor. Seward opened his mouth — whether to call for help, or to make some answer to her suggestion, he could not have said. But he made no sound. 

"Yes." The hard note was back in Mina's voice, and for the first time she smiled. "I see that you would have done as I asked. You would have betrayed everything you hold dear, to have me. But do not look so alarmed, John. You need not actually do it. Your decision was enough. Now we know you are worthy to join the elect." 

His eyes still fixed on Mina, Seward was vaguely aware of the scent of lilies, and earth, and leafmould washing over him. Though he could not turn his head, he knew that Lucy was behind him, her hands teasingly pulling his shirt collar away from his neck. 

"You will be ours, John," Lucy's voice whispered. She must have beckoned Mina, for he found himself between the two women, both of them closing in on his neck. "Completely and forever — ours."


End file.
